The album has sold 4,000,000 copies to date. The track "Morning Glory" was sampled in "Bite Our Style (Interlude)", a track by Missy Elliott from her album Supa Dupa Fly. A similar occurrence occurred with "Manifest Destiny", sampled in "Who Do U Believe In", a track by Tupac Shakur from his album Better Dayz. The soft rock track "Space Cowboy" was featured in the game Milk Premium: Spice of Orange.

Rolling Stone gave the album 4 out of 5 stars, claiming "Jay Kay is a wonderfully nimble singer with a Stevie Wonder jones, and Jamiroquai parlay jazzy soul pop so tight it crackles....Nowadays, when most funk comes out of cans, Jamiroquai's live spark glows."Entertainment Weekly gave the album a B- rating, claiming "No idle nostalgia broker, Jamiroquai is a funk-making machine with a bright future in the past."Q magazine also gave the album 3 out of 5 stars, claiming "An ebullient follow-up to his storming debut." The Source claimed "The Return Of The Space Cowboy is a mixture of acid jazz-like keyboards with an overlay of bright horns and hard basslines....This group may still be light years ahead of the hip-hop world." Musician claimed "...sounds like a bastard spawn of Stevie Wonder and Mandrill with its vintage keyboards, jazz harmonies and fondness for rambling, jam-oriented arrangements..."

*sales figures based on certification alone^shipments figures based on certification alone